Europe should stop backing a Russia-led project to deliver natural gas to the continent, according to US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell. However, not all the European nations agree. [...]

There are some early signs that the US shale industry is starting to show its age, with depletion rates on the rise. A study from Wood Mackenzie found that some wells in the Permian Wolfcamp were suffering from decline rates at or above 15 percent after five years, much higher than the 5 to 10 percent originally anticipated. “ [...]

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe will double Russian natural gas supplies to Germany via the Baltic Sea and reduce transit across Ukraine. On August 10, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction project was forced to apply for an alternative pipeline route in Denmark, Sputnik contributor Dmitry Lekukh wrote. [...]

Although the Chinese government has not yet gone so far in the ever-escalating trade war as to sanction United States oil, imports are drying up anyway as Chinese buyers shy away from US crude. According to US Census Bureau data released last week, for the first time since 2016, China has halted purchases of US crude, importing zero barrels in August. [...]

The minister-president of the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania in northern Germany has lambasted critics of the gas pipeline project, who didn’t play with “open cards,” and rejected claims that the venture would make her country fully dependent of Russia as “nonsense.” [...]

The crude rally is likely to continue this year as OPEC countries are losing their exports, analysts told RT. The key reason is US sanctions against major producers Iran and Venezuela. [...]

The Trump administration has shot itself in the foot by tightening the screws in the US-China tariff war: Beijing is turning its back on American liquefied natural gas (LNG) in response to Washington's third round of tariffs. The move is especially painful for the US, as it had projected to jump on the bandwagon of the booming Asian gas market. [...]

Sanctions against Russia’s key energy companies would inevitably lead to a collapse of the European energy sector, BP CEO Bob Dudley has warned, according to Sputnik news agency. “I do not think that would happen. If sanctions were put on Rosneft or Gazprom or LUKoil like what happened with Rusal, you would virtually shut down the energy systems of Europe, it is a bit of extreme thing to happe [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The second pipelay vessel has started working on the German section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the pipeline's operator, Nord Stream AG, said. "The offshore pipelay vessel "Audacia" began its work on the Nord Stream 2 project today. "Audacia", operated by Allseas, is the second vessel together with the "Castoro Dieci" (C10) to lay the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the German [...]

America’s second-largest oil client, China, has completely stopped buying crude from the United States as trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies continue to grow. While oil has not been included on the list of bilateral tariffs, Chinese refiners have been staying away from buying crude from the US. [...]

The oil debate has been particularly intense lately given President Donald Trump’s threatening with sanctions against countries that would continue buying Iranian oil. The issue has met a barrage of criticism across the world. Kuwait has for the first time in 25 years halted its crude oil exports to the US, according to statistics published by the US Department of Energy. [...]

Crude prices will likely reach $100 per barrel for the first time since 2014, and OPEC has no leverage to prevent such a scenario, an analyst has warned. “Nobody wants to get caught short, full in the knowledge that more Iranian barrels are poised to be removed from the market,” Stephen Brennock, oil analyst at PVM Oil Associates, said in a research note published on Monday, as quoted by CNBC. [...]

If you can’t get them to keep quiet, ignore them, appears to be the playbook currently in use by OPEC. Tweets by US President Donald Trump demanding that OPEC boost its oil output as a means of lowering prices worldwide have been met with silence by the global fossil-fuel energy bloc. [...]

Washington is fiercely fighting for Germany’s energy market, trying to sell more of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the country, and to wrestle one of the biggest energy consumers away from Russian energy giant Gazprom. Germany currently gets around 60 of its natural gas imports from Russia. [...]

The US has repeatedly denounced the Russian-European joint venture to build a direct gas pipeline from Russia to the center of the EU via the Baltic Sea. Apart from lambasting Berlin for colluding with Moscow, Washington has already laid the groundwork for sanctions against companies involved in Nord Stream 2. [...]

One of the world’s longest gas pipelines – the Power of Siberia – which is being created to deliver natural gas from Russia to China, is almost complete. The sides are now getting ready to ink a contract on another major pipeline. Agreement on the Power of Siberia 2 or the ‘Western Route’ for the supply of Russian gas from the Far East to China might be signed in the first half of 2019, [...]

The tax and trade policies of Donald Trump are, in fact, what have contributed to the surge in oil prices, a US economics professor told RT, adding that the US President’s tough words to OPEC are a political stunt. On Thursday, Trump accused OPEC’s Middle East producers of “pushing for higher and higher oil prices” and demanded “they stop it,” adding that the US is “protecting those [...]

In the first physical settlement of the Chinese yuan-denominated oil futures contract, five companies will deliver a total of 600,000 barrels of Middle Eastern crude grades to buyers of the September futures contract. [...]

During their August 18 summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel noted that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project is profitable for both sides and should not be politicized. Speaking to Radio Sputnik, Gerhard Mangott, a political analyst from Austria's Innsbrook University, shared his views on the EU's energy issue. [...]